The Foreign Minister of Argentina, Santiago Cafiero, held a meeting yesterday, Thursday, with his counterpart of Uruguay, Francisco Bustillo, in which they agreed to strengthen the bilateral agenda and the Southern Common Market (Mercosur), said the Argentine Foreign Ministry.
The officials discussed in Buenos Aires various issues inherent to the broad bilateral and regional agenda and the current situation of Mercosur (a bloc completed by Brazil and Paraguay), and the challenges that will arise during the first half of 2023, when Argentina holds the Pro Tempore Presidency of the mechanism.
During the meeting at the San Martín Palace, the ceremonial seat of the Argentine Foreign Ministry, Cafiero and Bustillo highlighted the “response given by the member countries of the bloc during 2022 to the global demands for products that Mercosur was able to export to the whole world”.
The officials “ratified the need to give even more dynamism to regional and extra-regional trade”, according to the official information.
At the extra-regional level, Mercosur reached a trade agreement on June 28, 2019, with the European Union (EU), after 20 years of negotiations, although its ratification by both blocs is pending.
In bilateral terms, both foreign ministers highlighted the work of the Argentine-Uruguayan Integration Commission (CIAU), which addresses various areas at the level of secretaries of state, as well as the Argentine-Uruguayan Bilateral Commission on Commercial Affairs, to evaluate in detail the issues of the bilateral economic and commercial agenda.
“Both Chancellors highlighted the relationship between both countries and agreed to continue deepening the different axes that make the external relationship between Argentina and Uruguay”, stated the official information.